The Ministry of Construction is drafting a National Assembly Resolution to pilot a number of specific mechanisms for investment in developing the railway system. In particular, the drafting agency proposes 19 policy groups to accelerate railway investment.

The merger forced some metro lines to adjust their routes.

According to the Ministry of Construction, the National Assembly has actually issued two Resolutions on investment policies for the North-South high-speed railway, the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong railway and a Resolution on piloting specific mechanisms and policies to develop the railway network system in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

However, the country is planning to build many new urban and inter-regional railway lines. At the same time, many localities will merge, such as Ho Chi Minh City merging with Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Binh Duong... This forces the provinces to adjust the route or propose new railway lines.

In addition, the practice of investing in national and urban railway projects in recent times has shown many difficulties and obstacles. Specifically, capital mobilization, investment procedures, site clearance, transfer, and development of the railway industry...

Therefore, the Ministry of Construction found that the National Assembly needs to issue a joint resolution, instead of individually as before, to create conditions for railway projects to speed up progress.

Empowerment of Prime Minister and Localities

Regarding capital mobilization, the Ministry of Construction proposed that the National Assembly allow the Prime Minister to decide on the use of diverse capital sources such as issuing government bonds, official development assistance capital, foreign preferential loans, increased revenue and savings... for investment in project development.

Provinces are allowed to exploit land funds and added value from land in the vicinity of national railway stations, develop urban areas according to the TOD model for urban railways to create additional investment capital for railway development.

Urban railway projects and urban railway projects following the TOD model do not have to carry out procedures for establishing, appraising, deciding on investment policies and other procedures related to deciding on investment policies according to the provisions of law.

Allows investors to designate contractors, goods, construction, etc. At the same time, investors are allowed to be designated for railway construction investment projects, industrial complex construction, and railway technology transfer.

The draft Resolution will be submitted by the Government to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the 9th session of the 15th National Assembly, taking place in early May.

The Ministry of Construction also proposed for the first time to allow investors to apply the system of norms, construction prices, investment capital rates, cost data, operation and maintenance published by domestic and foreign organizations; to be allowed to determine costs according to the investment capital rates of similar projects in the world and converted to the time of calculation...

The drafting committee believes that railway projects have complex techniques and modern technology, and do not have a system of unit prices, norms, standards, and technical regulations, or do have them but they are not complete or appropriate. Therefore, the Ministry of Construction expects the above policy to remove obstacles.

Regarding compensation, support and resettlement, the Ministry of Construction proposed assigning clear responsibilities to organizations. For example, the relocation of 110KV power projects or higher is the responsibility of Vietnam Electricity, the Provincial People's Committee is responsible for resettlement work and the bidding process is applied to bid packages related to land acquisition.

In addition, to gradually achieve domestic technological autonomy, the Ministry of Construction has included in the draft regulations allowing organizations and individuals participating in scientific and technological activities and training and development of railway human resources to enjoy preferential policies.

For bidding packages, the general contractor and contractor must commit to transferring technology and training human resources for Vietnamese partners to master management, operation, maintenance, etc.

In addition, the process of selecting investors, contractors and important bid packages must have the participation of representatives from the Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Finance, Government Inspectorate and State Audit.

How are previous resolutions applied?

The Ministry of Construction proposes that for railway construction investment projects that have been decided on by the National Assembly before the effective date of this Resolution, the competent authority shall have the following responsibilities:

Decide on the application of the provisions of this Resolution to subsequent activities that have not been implemented without adjusting the project investment policy;

Responsible for adjusting investment decisions without having to carry out procedures to adjust investment policies in case of adjusting urban railway projects, urban railways according to the TOD model.

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/de-xuat-them-nghi-quyet-chung-cho-duong-sat-cao-toc-vi-cac-tinh-se-sap-nhap-post401244.html